Jadavpur Univ to host Santali manuscript exhibition & transcription workshop

Kolkata: The School of Cultural Texts and Records (SCTR) of Jadavpur University (JU) will be hosting a unique workshop for individuals interested in transcribing historical documents in Santali on the Wikisource platform as part of its endeavour to keep Santali language alive in the digital era.

The occasion of ‘Hul 1855’ (the Santhal rebellion of 1855) on June 30 will be marked by a special event featuring an exhibition of rare Santali manuscripts and a Santali Edit-a-thon for Wikisource at the SCTR located on the 5th floor of Rabindra Bhavan, in JU.

Rahi Soren, Assistant Professor at The School of Oceanographic Studies, JU, will be curating the exhibition. Research scholars Reesoom Pal and Ayan Chatterjee will facilitate the transcription of two rare books based on Hul – a drama, ‘Sarjom Dharwak’ (message in the Sal) written by Babulal Murmu in Bengali script and ‘Chotrae Deshmajhi Reak Katha’ by Raya Soren in Roman script.

Desmanjhi is the only person whose oral narrative of Hul has been published in the form of a book. After ‘Hul 1855’, Desmanjhi had migrated to Assam and after a gap of nearly 50 years of the migration, Raya Soren visited him and penned down his version about Hul and published the same. This book is a first person account which stamps uniqueness to it.

“Both these books are in the public domain but are in image form. So they cannot be searched or edited by any means. Hence, we will carry out transcription of these,” said Rahi Soren. The programme is a public event and attendance will be through registration. Each participant attending the event will be transcribing one page each to gain hands-on experience enabling them to contribute on their own in future.

The SCTR has completed the challenging task of digitisation and preservation of some 5,000 odd images and rare documents in Santali in its project “Locating and digitising early Santali periodicals published between 1890 and 1975 in Eastern India (EAP 1300)”. The visitors will get a chance to behold such rare documents right in front of them and will be acquainted with the rich literary history and cultural heritage of the Santals.

Various collections of Dablu Soren of Berhampore, Murshidabad and Mahadeb Hansda of Bandwan in Purulia that have been digitised will be a major attraction of the exhibition. It will also shed light on the works of Late Pandit Raghuram Murmu, Late Sadhu Ramchand Murmu illustrating their immense contribution to Santali literature.